Most days at Zoopy HQ are filled with all kinds of activity: sales, design, development, brainstorming, growing in a million directions - and of course being out of the office, meeting people, attending events and involving ourselves in various interesting initiatives.

Yesterday was something very different. Unexpected, incredibly beautiful and totally worthwhile.

The minute we heard about Graham’s Stormhoek call to action, we responded and made plans to venture out to Wellington to purchase a vine. We ventured winewards to film and photograph the process, including all the behind the scenes stories and actions that make Stormhoek the wine and brand it has become. But we were astonished at what we found when we arrived.

For some reason, we expected regular industrial wine making. A large polished cellar, a clean front of house sales environment and Graham smiling and shaking hands in a Cape Dutch style, Groot Constantia-esque building. What we found was something entirely different, in so many wonderful ways.

Graham lives in, and runs Stormhoek from, a breathtaking valley in Wellington that gives a real world vision of what the Garden of Eden must’ve been like. Sitting on his patio, which is where we found him working, he has vines (with grapes of course) growing above his head and looks out onto the most magnificent wild vegetation you’ve ever seen. Trees, vineyards, plants, bushes and endless beauty. It’s no wonder that Graham puts so much passion into his wine. This is his life.

We got to spend some time with Graham and Di (his wife and fellow Stormhoek-ian) and left feeling a little bewildered. Graham took us on a full tour of his vineyards, his winery, the dam and introduced us to some of his wine-picking workers. These are some of the guys the Own a Vine, Save a Job project will be saving. People with names, families, dreams. More people had have to find out about this.

So, over a delicious chicken braai, we put together some ideas for a great multimedia collection that will properly communicate all of this. To start with, we’ll cover all the basics and introduce this magnificent valley and Stormhoek’s processes from A to Z. We’re tempted to put up a few pictures but will save it for Thursday or Friday, when we have the first bits of media for you to enjoy. As we go forward, we’ll be helping Stormhoek to continue communicating their progress in ways that go beyond the written word, through video, photos and podcasts. This is one of those things in life that just have to be seen to be believed.

In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, please help Stormhoek Own a Vine, Save a Job.

Like most Capetonians, we love the RAG mag. So we decided to inject a bit of Zoopy into the 2008 edition of the Sax Appeal magazine. Here’s our ad that appeared in this year’s mag this morning (click pic to enlarge):

Believe it or not, the photo in the ad is a real user generated photo that was uploaded to Zoopy 323 days ago. Enjoy the mag and have a great Valentine’s Day

Mike’s been globe trotting in his Googlethu t-shirt, sipping Starbucks and doing SA proud at DEMO08. If you don’t know, DEMO is the premier launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. For more than 16 years, DEMO has established a reputation for identifying and presenting to an elite audience the products most likely to have a significant impact on the marketplace and market trends in the coming year.

He showcased Zoopy as one of ten SA Web 2.0 companies and had some kind words to say about Your Social Media Playground. To quote: “Zoopy.com is a video and photo sharing site that has recently made headlines worldwide because of the partnership that they struck up with Nokia and that’s a really great example of a startup that has proved (a) it’s sustainability but (b) that it’s a global player, coming out of South Africa”. Lekker Mike, thanks!

Here’s Mike giving Zoopy and other SA startups a virtual high five, USA-style:

As keen players in SA’s new media marketing mix, we’re looking forward to spending some time with others in this space. The crowd at this year’s New Media Marketing conference will include some interesting perspectives from site owners, corporate strategists, legal minds and marketing brains. And most importantly, the audience. These are the people consuming, buying, analysing and promoting the services and ideas behind South Africa’s online and mobile media industry.

Running over four days (25-28 March 2008 at Gallagher Estate in Joburg), Zoopy (as the official media sharing partner) will be filming, photographing, podcasting and blogging the entire event, as well as creating a dedicated landing page for social media added by those speaking and attending. In the run up to the conference, we’ll be including snippets from speakers to highlight some of what they’ll be sharing - and hopefully featuring questions, comments and topic ideas from those planning to attend.

We keep saying it, and it’s true: 2008 is going to be huge. As broadband prices decrease, mobile technology continues to blow old thinking out the water and all kinds of new media channels become even more entrenched in our daily lives, the future of this industry can’t be anything but un-be-liev-ab-ly exciting. Yes, five syllables please.

If you haven’t booked yet and want to share in the coming together of minds, find out more and sign up here. See you there!